Definitely not gay
by Moppipoika
Summary: Right before the most important exam of the year, Tom wakes up in the middle of the night to some kid baking brownies.
1. Could you please let me sleep?

It was too fucking late for anyone to even be up anymore, and still Tom could hear someone rattling in the kitchen. With an annoyed sigh he checked the time from his phone.

2:30am.

So, it was 2:30 in the middle of the night, and someone had decided it was a good time to wake him up, right before the most important exam of his life. He laid on his bed for a good while, listening to the noises coming from the kitchen, waiting for them to stop so he could go back to sleep.

But apparently it wasn't going to happen any time soon, so with another annoyed sigh Tom got up and put on his shirt before entering the common areas of the dormitory.

He had now been living there for a little over a year now, so this wasn't the first time someone was being noisy in the middle of the night. Normally Tom didn't care since he almost never went to bed before 4am himself, but now he had an exam in the morning which he actually wanted to pass. He had to pass it. Otherwise Mrs. Williams would make him attend all her courses again, 'cause Tom had failed most of them. Tom also had a feeling she would soon lose her mind because of him. So Tom was definitely not going to fail the damn exam.

Amongst some loud clattering, Tom could hear crooning from the kitchen. He stopped by the kitchen door, staring at the source of the noises in disbelief; a tall, black haired boy who Tom had never seen before, was baking something with an almost empty wine bottle sitting on the kitchen counter.

Two-fucking-thirty in the morning, and this guy was keeping Tom up because he was a little hungry. Or got the munchies. There was no way Tom was going to allow it.

"Do you know how late it is?" Tom walked closer, not even trying to hide the anger in his voice. He wanted this guy to know exactly how pissed he was.

The raven haired teen turned to Tom, raising a brow at him. "Actually, I do," he smiled and brought a glass of wine to his lips. "Do you?"

"Damn right I do! I also know I have a fucking important exam in the morning," Tom growled, trying to keep his voice down since he didn't want to wake anyone else up. He wasn't going to be the asshole who wakes the whole floor only 'cause he's awake himself.

"And you're telling me this, because?" The boy turned his back to Tom, returning to his baking.

"Because you fucking woke me up!" It was seriously hard to keep quiet and not just lash out at the guy. "If you hadn't noticed yet, you're living in a dorm with other people, who'd like to, you know, sleep at night. And I don't know about you, but at least everyone else here has to wake up for school in the morning, so I'd really appreciate it if you'd just stop doing whatever it is you're doing, and let me sleep, okay?"

The teen stayed quiet for a while, slowly sipping his wine before he crouched to put something in the oven. Afterwards he turned back to Tom with a tired smile on his lips. "I'm Bill," the guy simply introduced himself. "And you're not being very nice."

Tom blinked dumbly. What? He wasn't being very nice? He wasn't the one keeping Bill up, was he? No, Tom was an extremely nice guy, but even he had his limits.

"And you know," Bill continued before Tom even had the time to think of something to say. "I had a long, long day of moving. I deserve my wine for surviving the whole day with my mother."

"What are you talking about?" Tom asked, starting to get desperate. He kinda wanted to hit the guy in the face, kinda wanted to sit down and hear more.

The guy certainly looked interesting; long, raven black hair with white highlights, and black eye makeup which had gotten a bit smudged. He was wearing black jeans with lots and lots of zippers on the legs, and a oversized Green Day t-shirt. He looked nothing like the people Tom usually hanged out with, but he definitely looked intriguing.

"Oh, you didn't know I was moving in?" Bill asked and raised his eyebrows in surprise. "The other guy, uh, Michael I think, moved out with his girlfriend so I got his room," he flashed a wide smile before drinking again. "You should be welcoming me to the neighbourhood instead of telling me to shut up and go to sleep."

Tom couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes. He couldn't tell if this guy was drunk, or if this just was the way he was. Either way, he was still annoying as hell, and Tom really wanted to go back to sleep.

"I'm not feeling very welcoming right now", Tom snapped. Oh, how he wanted to grab a chair and hit this guy in the face with it, maybe then he could get his much needed beauty sleep. "So, this is the last time I'll ask you this nicely: could you just, please, stop baking and let me sleep? Cause I really fucking need it, and if I'm gonna fail my exam and I have to redo all the courses, I'm gonna hold you responsible for everything."

"Redo all courses? Why would you have to do that?" Bill furrowed in confusion, emptying his glass and then filling it up again.

"Well, I've failed almost every one of them, so if I don't pass this, Mrs. Williams is gonna-"

"Let me get this straight," Bill interrupted him, holding his other hand up to shut Tom up. "You are mad at me, cause I'm keeping you up. And you are gonna blame me, if you don't pass the stupid exam. And you're gonna blame me if you have to redo all the stupid courses you didn't pass, because you probably didn't care enough to study at all, until this point."

Bill gave Tom a questioning look, and when Tom slowly nodded to agree, Bill continued; "Please tell me, cause I really don't understand, how is it my fault that you failed almost everything? Is it really my fault you fucked up your studies?"

Tom's mind went blank. He had definitely not expected that, and now he had no idea what to say, or if there even was something he could say. Now that Bill had said it out loud, it kinda made sense. It was his own fault he had decided to focus on drinking and partying rather than studying. He had thought he could handle it, a little drinking every now and then wouldn't harm his studies, he could manage.

Apparently, he couldn't. Of course, his drinking "every now and then" was more like every weekend, and when he drank, he drank lots. It was never about grabbing a few beers with friends to get his mind off of school, it was rather competing on who could drink the most shots, or who could chug down their beer the fastest.

However, even if none of it was Bill's fault, Tom still had a reason to be mad at him. It was still half past two, and people were supposed to be sleeping. Bill could go back to his baking in the morning when nobody cared if he was being noisy or not.

"Want a piece?" Bill suddenly asked, offering Tom a plate with a piece of something that looked like shit. "Trust me, it's good."

"I don't want anything but you away from the kitchen, so I can go back to sleep," Tom said, feeling extremely annoyed, eyeing the thing on the plate. Maybe it was mud cake? Tom loved mud cake more than he loved his family, so a part of him kinda hoped it wasn't mud cake, cause he really didn't want to take anything from Bill and mud cake would've been impossible to say no to.

"Taste it, and I'll go to my room," Bill smirked, bringing the plate closer to Tom's face.

Then the smell hit Tom. The wonderful, rich, chocolatey smell forced Tom to inhale so deep he felt a little dizzy. It smelled so good Tom wanted to grab the piece of whatever it was, and rub it all over his body. He wanted to make a soap out of it, no, he wanted a cologne that smelled like it. Tom's stomach was suddenly growling and he felt more hungry than ever. He desperately wanted to taste the thing Bill had made, but he also wanted to stay mad at the guy.

"Oh come on," Bill groaned. "It's a piece of brownie, just fucking taste it, okay?"

Tom eyed the plate for a while longer before taking it with a deep sigh. He didn't even like brownies, but if this was gonna make Bill let him sleep, he would do it.

"Could you give me a spoon?" Tom asked and inhaled the sweet scent a little more. He couldn't help wondering why something so bad like brownies smelled so heavenly good.

"Oh, you eat it with your hands," Bill smiled and took a piece for himself too. "It's a part of the experience to get your hands dirty," he grinned before he took a bite of his piece, making a face full of pure pleasure.

Tom wrinkled his nose. He couldn't believe it was as good as Bill claimed it to be, but he was gonna give it a go anyway. Just to make Bill leave him be.

With trembling hands Tom took a bite of his piece, and he regretted it right away. It was so sweet, soft, and so full of chocolate Tom was sure it was what heaven would taste like. Mud cake wasn't even nearly this good.

"Well?" Bill soon asked, tilting his head a bit.

Tom swallowed slowly, debating with himself over whether he should tell the truth or not. It was literally better than anything Tom had ever tasted, and he was sure it could make him feel better than any drug in the world. Then again, he had been angry at Bill, and he still wanted to be 'cause he had not forgotten how the guy was probably gonna be the reason he would fail his exam in the morning.

"It's okay," he finally gave an answer with a not so convincing voice.

Bill gave him a smile he couldn't quite read. "I'll let you sleep now," he said as he picked up his wine bottle from the counter. "I'll see you around, Tom."

Tom watched Bill leave the kitchen, feeling a bit odd when he was finally alone. It was so quiet it made him a bit uncomfortable, and in the scary silence Tom finished his brownie before returning to his room. He still had a couple of hours to sleep.


	2. It's not funny!

When Tom finally woke up to unheavenly loud beeping, it took him about two seconds to realize he was really fucking late. He threw on his clothes from the day before, grabbed his backpack and ran out the door. He couldn't remember when was the last time he had actually ran to school, or if this was the first time ever. The second option was probably the right one.

It was both a curse and a blessing to live next to the school building. Right now it felt like the best thing that had ever happened in his life. He ran through the hallway that connected the school building and the building he lived in, dodging other students the best he could. The last thing he needed was to bump into someone, cause that could mean falling or even having to talk to someone, and he really didn't have the time.

"Hi Tom," a guy with blond hair smiled as Tom ran past him, but Tom didn't have time to even look at who he was. "I'll call you!" The guy yelled after him and Tom gave him a quick look over his shoulder before he turned left at the next corner. He could find out who the guy was after he was done with the exam, when he actually had time to think about something else than moving his legs forward.

As he ran towards the staircase he looked up at one of the clocks hanging from the school's ceiling. Two minutes. He had two minutes to get to the fourth floor and find the classroom number 417. He had only been to the fourth floor once, by accident, right after he had started his studies there. Mrs. Williams' classes were normally held somewhere around the second floor, and Tom was pretty sure she knew he had no idea where the room 417 was and that's why she decided to have the exam there, to make sure he wouldn't arrive on time.

Tom's legs felt like noodles, and he was pretty sure he would soon die from not getting enough oxygen because of how out of breath he was when he arrived to the third floor. He wasn't sure if he could make it to the exam in time, and he was kind of ready to give up. It would've been easier to just give up. Then all the courses he would have to redo creeped to his mind, making him realize it would definitely not be easier to give up; giving up would be the end of him and his dreams of becoming a game programmer.

Even though Tom felt like throwing up, he used the remaining of his strength to force his legs to keep running. There were so many stairs, and the elevator was too slow to even be considered as an option. Why were there so many stairs? Why would anyone ever think it was a good idea to make angry, tired students walk so much? If Tom was to ever design a new school, he wouldn't put a single stair in it.

He had never felt as exhausted as he did when he arrived to the fourth floor and started to look for the right classroom. He would've definitely missed it if Mrs. Williams hadn't come out of the room just before he was gonna head the other way.

"Wait!" Tom shrieked in horror when he realized Mrs. Williams was going to close the classroom door. Somehow his legs ran a little faster as he tried to reach the doorway in time. "I'm here! I'm not late!"

Mrs. Williams raised her brows at him. "Well, technically, you're about thirty seconds late," she told him dryly after checking her wristwatch. "But since it's practically the first time you're even this close to not being late, I'm gonna let you in and try to pass this thing."

If Tom hadn't been so worn out because of the running, he would've come up with a witty comeback, but his brain wasn't working properly and he needed to get his thoughts straight before taking the exam. So instead he simply walked past her and sat down on a seat Mrs. WIlliams had already assigned to him.

"You have two hours to take this test, and you're not allowed to leave even a second earlier than the said two hours," Mrs. Williams told Tom and some other guy sitting a few seats away from him. "You'd normally only have an hour, but since you're kind of lost cases, I decided to give you some extra time to think about the questions. So, maybe, you'll both actually pass this one because of this."

Tom wanted to scream. He had to sit two hours straight, taking a test, at eight in the morning? Really? With a deep sigh he buried his face in his hands, trying to prepare himself for the next few hours.

And it was worse than Tom could've ever imagined. His mind was blank, and all he could think about was the heavenly good brownie he had tasted last night, and the stupid guy who had baked them. The guy who had robbed Tom his beauty sleep, and who was now the reason Tom remembered nothing from the things he had studied.

After two hours of wanting to run away, and praying for every possible god to kill him right there, Tom finally walked out of the classroom. He felt emotionally drenched and was more than ready to get back to his room and go to sleep. He deserved it. Well, actually he didn't, considering how bad the exam had went, but he was simply gonna ignore that. He needed sleep. And judging by the sounds his stomach made, he also needed some food.

"Tom!" a familiar voice called him, and he turned around to find the source of the voice. He sighed heavily as he saw his brown haired friend, Georg, run towards him. "Where have you been? I've called you like five times."

Tom furrowed and fished his phone from his enormously large pocket, and there was indeed five missed calls and 23 unread messages.

"I was having a two hour exam," he mumbled as he put his phone away. Every time he thought about it, it felt even more awful. Who the fuck actually made their students sit two fucking hours for an exam? Even though Tom had never cared about math, the subject Mrs. Williams taught, he had always kinda liked Mrs. Williams herself. But this changed everything.

"Oh god!" Georg breathed as he raised his hands on his chest and imitated having a heart attack. "How are you even alive?" he soon asked with a wide grin. They had only known each other for a little over a year now, but Georg had learned that if Tom hated something about school, it was taking tests.

"Not sure if I am," Tom laughed as they began to walk towards the stairs to get to the first floor, where the school's cafeteria was located. "I mean, jesus, doing math for two hours straight," he muttered with shivers running down his spine. "I would've rather died."

"Math?!" Georg gasped, once again raising his hands on his chest, this time looking like he might actually have a stroke. "How are you still alive?!"

As they walked, Tom told his friend everything about the damn exam and how miserably he had failed at it. Georg nothing but laughed at him, joking about how Tom should probably reconsider his dream job, or at least come up with a plan b.

Tom hated to admit it, but Georg was probably right. His studies weren't really going anywhere since he was failing almost everything, and getting the worst possible grades from everything he didn't fail. It probably would've been easier to just give up his dream of becoming a game programmer and pick up another job to go after; something a little easier, something that didn't require studies in subjects he didn't understand jack shit about.

Tom bought himself a slice of pizza and a can of coke from the cafeteria, Georg doing the same after him. They looked around for a while, searching for a free table, which seemed to be impossible to find. Even though the room was full of tables of different sizes, and the room itself was huge, it was technically a miracle to find a free table or even a free seat.

"Oh, hey, Gustav's waving at us," Tom spoke after a long moment of looking around, when he spotted his blond friend from the other side of the room. "Looks like he's alone."

"Oh thank god," Georg sighed in relief. "I was ready to stand here for the rest of my life to get a seat, cause I don't eat standing up. That's stupid and uncomfortable. I mean, why can't they make the cafeteria a little bigger and get some more tables. Can't they see we're suffering?" he complained as they walked towards their friend, who was still waving at them like he was scared they'd get lost.

The moment Tom sat down with his friends and Gustav started complaining about his shitty biology teacher, everything felt a little better. And as Tom sank his teeth into the oily, cheesy surface of his pizza, life felt even better. God it tasted good. The coke was okay since it wasn't properly cold, but the pizza was better than good. It was a pity it was so expensive, two and a half euros for a slice, because sometimes Tom could've just eat twenty slices more. Of course the price included some fruits and a salad, but who would want to ruin a perfect pizza with some salad? He didn't eat in the cafeteria that often because of the prices, but sometimes it was a good change to his normal diet which included pretty much the cheapest beer he could find and ramen noodles.

"Tom?" Gustav snapped his fingers in front of Tom's face to wake him up from his thoughts. "Where were you going in the morning? I mean I said hi, and you just ran away like something was after you."

"It was you?" Tom asked with raised brows, and then threw an apologetic look to his friend. "Sorry, I had my math exam with Mrs. Williams and I was kinda in a hurry," he explained and took a sip from his drink.

"I've told you to wake up earlier," Georg commented. "And, I've told you to go sleep earlier. I swear, you never wake up to your alarms."

"But you didn't even wave!" Gustav complained, pouting like a little boy, and Tom didn't even bother stopping himself from rolling his eyes. "I mean, you could've waved."

"I'm sorry, okay? I'll give you a wave next time," Tom sighed and took another sip from his drink. "Besides, it's not my fault I was in a hurry. This new guy named Bill kept me up all night," he said, getting annoyed just thinking about the kid.

He took a deep breath, blew it slowly out of his nose and sighed heavily, his friends staring at him impatiently. He took his time shaking away the annoyance, before he spoke again: "This new guy, Bill, woke me up in the middle of the night because he was baking. He was drunk and annoying as hell, and refused to let me sleep and he even got mad at me when I told him to shut up and let me sleep."

"He was baking?" Georg repeated with his brows raised.

"I know! Unbelievable!" Tom crossed his arms on his chest and shook his head. "I can't believe I failed the stupid test because of some new guy wanting a midnight snack."

He raised his eyes to Gustav, who had raised his hand on his mouth to keep himself from laughing. "What?" Tom snapped, squinting his eyes at the blond guy.

"Well," Gustav started and cleared his throat to keep his voice straight. "You could've just gone back to sleep, you know?"

"But the guy was making so much noise!" Tom cried. He couldn't believe Gustav wasn't taking this seriously.

"Yeah, Gus, the guy was drunk baking for heaven's sake!" Georg laughed with a wide smirk. "You can't just put on some earplugs or something, you have to get up and go tell him to shut up."

"Guys, I'm serious!" Tom started to feel desperate, he didn't understand why his friends thought this was so funny, he had failed an exam because of Bill. "I failed because Bill wanted me to fucking taste his brownies and wouldn't let me go back to sleep!"

Both Gustav ja Georg were now laughing so loudly that people on the tables next to theirs had turned to look at them. "C'mon guys! It's not funny," Tom whined and felt how his cheeks started to burn from embarrassment.

"Yeah, Gus," Georg laughed, wiping tears from his eyes. "It's not funny."

"No, this is serious,", Gustav nodded. "I mean, some guy just offered Tom some brownies! How dare he?" The blond laughed, and he had to bury his face on his hands so he could stop.

"What's so funny about this, seriously?" Tom asked after a little while, when his friends finally started to calm down.

"Okay, in all seriousness," Gustav said quietly, clearly still holding down a laugh. "Yeah, the guy woke you up, but you could've just put on some earplugs or headphones to shut the voices."

"And it's okay that you went to tell the guy to keep quiet, I guess I would've gone too, but you can't blame him for staying up," Georg smiled and took a bite of his now cold pizza. "You could've just literally gone to say shut up, and then go to bed. But for some reason, you decided to stay up and talk to the guy, and you decided to eat the brownie. You can't blame him for that," he then explained. "I mean, unless he had a gun on you, it was all about you deciding whether you stay up with the guy or go back to sleep."

Tom stared at his friends in disbelief. He couldn't believe his ears. They didn't understand at all. He had not wanted to stay up with Bill, and he had not wanted to eat the brownie. He had simply wanted Bill gone from the kitchen, so he could sleep. But the more he thought about it, the more he felt like his friends were right, and he hated it. He absolutely hated when he was wrong, and the G's were right.

"I hate you guys," Tom finally mumbled as he sank down on his chair.


	3. I bet you're a Hufflepuff

The next few days were kind of weird. Tom didn't see Bill or hear from Bill, it was like the damn guy never even existed. The longer Tom went without seeing the guy, the more he started to actually look for the guy. He even sat in the kitchen until morning hours so he could see Bill, but no, nobody ever left the guy's room and nobody entered it. When for the third time Tom went to bed at five, he decided to drop it. The guy clearly didn't want to meet him again, so why would he bother? In fact, he didn't really understand why he had started to look for him in the first place. Bill had been annoying and arrogant when they met, and Tom had immediately hated the guy, so why would he even want to meet him again?

After his first proper sleep in a few days, Tom headed to history class feeling like he was ready to run the marathon. He was the first to arrive to the classroom, which felt more than weird since he was practically always late and the last one to arrive, so now he didn't even question the surprised look on the teacher's face when he sat down in his usual seat. It was more than odd to just sit in the classroom and just go through his facebook, and the feeling like his teacher was staring at him didn't help it. Tom raised his eyes to check if the teacher, whose name he still couldn't remember, was actually looking at him and he wasn't surprised to see her eyes glued to him.

"What?" He asked with raised brows, lowering his phone so he could return the stare. The teacher furrowed in confusion which made Tom let out a deep sigh: "You're staring."

"Oh, I'm sorry," she apologised and turned her gaze to her laptop's screen. For a while she stared at it, until she turned back to Tom with a warm smile: "Are you okay?" Her eyes bore a hole in Tom, and he had to use all his willpower to not look away.

"Am I.. okay?" Tom repeated and received a short nod. "Why wouldn't I be?" He didn't understand, and he was pretty sure he was supposed to be the one to ask his teacher if she was okay; no teacher ever asked their students if they were okay, until they were crying or had like bruises on their face or something.

"It's just, I mean, you're never this early," she explained with a smile, and it took everything Tom had in him to not roll his eyes at her. "If there's anything that's bothering you, anything you need to talk about, I'm here."

In that moment Tom promised himself he would never arrive early to class again. It was weird and awkward having a teacher ask you if you were fine, and experiencing it once was more than enough. "Yeah, whatever," he soon mumbled and returned to his phone so he could spend the couple of minutes that were left alone and without talking to his teacher.

Hearing the bell ring had never felt as relieving as it did now, and Tom found himself quite happy to finally put his phone away as the first period started. Pretty soon Tom learned that his teacher's name was Mrs. Jensen, and her husband Mr. Jensen was the coach of the school's football team. Tom had no idea how he could forget Mrs. Jensen's name since it was everywhere in the posters around school 'cause she coached the cheerleaders, and there appeared to be a name tag on her table. Tom knew he wasn't really the sharpest pencil in the drawer, but he had no idea he was this stupid.

"So, to be able to talk about all of these subjects, you're going to have to work in pairs," a loud chorus of sighs followed Mrs. Jensen's words, and she gave the class a smile which told them it didn't stop there: "And I'm going to assign you your pairs and your subjects." Another loud chorus of sighs.

Tom didn't really care. He rarely did any work in group projects, so it didn't matter who he was paired up with. He knew almost everyone in the school, even if it was just by name or remembering their face from a party. He was also good with people, and he had never met anyone he didn't get along with, except Bill. Bill had been the first person he had practically hated before even meeting him, and although he had managed to be quite nice to the guy, he didn't feel like they'd get along very well in the long run.

"So," a book thumping loudly against Tom's desk made him jump a little and wake up from his thoughts. "You're my pair."

Tom raised his gaze from the book on his desk, and couldn't believe his eyes. Was he dreaming? Was it some kind of a joke? There was no way it could be real, no way it was happening. When the guy in front of him rolled his eyes and let out a bored sigh, Tom was sure. It was Bill. Bill with his long raven hair and brown eyes. How Tom had never seen the guy before in history class? He had no idea. How was it possible Tom hadn't seen the guy even once in the last few day? He had absolutely no idea. But there he was, alive and breathing, standing 10 centimeters from Tom and looking like he could use a nap.

"You," was all Tom managed to get out of himself.

"Yeah, me," Bill sneered. "C'mon, let's go, we have work to do."

Tom followed Bill into the library like the good boy he was, sat down next to a window and dug out his phone while Bill collected a pile of books for them. He had no intentions of reading or even touching a book, so he decided to let Bill do all the work.

"Why are we in the library?" Tom asked when Bill finally sat down. "The school has computers, you know? I even have a laptop with me right now, so why are we reading?"

Bill looked at him like it should've been obvious, but when the guy realized it wasn't, he smiled shortly. "I don't do computers," he simply explained.

"And why's that?"

"They make people stupid, like you," Bill gave Tom another short smile. "Books smell good, and it makes people actually work to get the information they need. On internet you just type in your problem and the answer is behind the first link. With books, you'll have to actually read something."

"That's why it sucks," Tom mumbled, his eyes glued to his phone. "I don't have time to read ten different books for one assignment. I can google it and get it done in half an hour, so why would I spend a whole day reading some books? That's just stupid." He raised his eyes from the screen to see Bill squint his eyes at him. "What?"

"You're probably the laziest person I've ever met."

"Probably, yeah."

"Well, if you think you're going to get away with it, and I'll do all the work by myself, then keep dreaming!" Bill's voice was slowly getting louder, and Tom felt trapped; it was like all those times when his mom had found out he had done something stupid and decided to yell at him for half an hour. "'Cause I'm not going to do your half of this, and I'm not going to let you half ass your way out of this! I don't care if you read or google the shit you need, but you're not gonna ruin this assignment, and I'm not gonna get a shitty grade from this because of you!" Bill was now actually screaming, his face red and eyes burning with anger.

Tom had no idea what he had done to set the guy off, apart from saying he didn't understand reading and preferred a computer when studying. He was pretty sure it wasn't all he had done, but he had no time to ask about it when the more than angry librarian came to tell them they needed to leave before she would call the campus police to take care of them. Without a word the two boys quietly made their way out of the library, and all the way to the school's garden before they dared to even breathe properly.

"I'm sorry I got us thrown out," Bill muttered as they slowly walked through the huge, well taken care of garden filled with roses and.. other flowers Tom didn't know the names of.

Tom thought about it for a moment. Bill was irritating, for sure, and the scene he had caused in the library had been uncalled-for, but at least he apologized for it. Maybe he should give him a chance? He did have to work with him for the project anyway, and it would be a lot easier if they'd even try to get along.

"It's okay since I didn't even want to be there in the first place," he finally gave Bill a smirk and gently nudged his side.

"But seriously, you should try reading," the raven haired boy laughed, earning another smirk from Tom.

"I do read," Tom smiled. "But not for school."

"What do you read then?"

"I started rereading the Harry Potters a while ago," Tom answered, and Bill seemed to be much more interested in him right away. "I also loved, well I didn't love, but I liked the Fifty shades."

"Ew. You do realize they're shit, right? Aren't they also like a.. Twilight fanfic?," Tom only laughed and kept smirking at Bill's disgusted face.

"Twilight's not that bad," he pointed out soon, receiving a dramatic eye roll from Bill.

"Let's just go back to talking about Harry Potter."

A few hours later, the boys had decided to skip the rest of their classes to sit at a cafe about a mile away from school so they could talk about Harry Potter. It was actually more like Bill talking and Tom listening and nodding with an understanding smile. In reality, Tom didn't understand much since he had only read the first three books, and he was too poor to buy the movies and too lazy to download them. He was also an awful slow reader since he always got distracted by his phone, and he rarely remembered anything from the book he read. He hadn't thought Bill would actually get this excited about the topic, but he didn't mind, he liked this happy and enthusiastic Bill.

"And when she killed Sirius, oh my god I cried for like the whole night after reading it," Bill looked like he could burst in tears right there just by thinking about it. "I mean, how could she do that to Harry?!"

Tom kept nodding and sipping from his coffee so he wouldn't have to talk. It seemed like Bill was running out of things to say and he expected Tom to say something or talk about his own opinions, but since he didn't have any opinions it was better to stay quiet.

"Have you joined Pottermore already?" Bill suddenly asked and Tom almost choked on his coffee.

"Have I joined what?" He managed to ask with a weak voice between his coughs.

"Pottermore, you idiot," Bill laughed. "I'm shocked you haven't even heard about it! It's this huge website that Rowling created based on Harry Potter, and you can do all kinds of tests to see which house you belong to or what's your wand made of, and there's so much information about all the characters!"

"Great! Sounds great!" It really did. Tom wouldn't have to read the books at all, and he could still learn all the details about everything.

"We have to figure out what house you belong in," Bill smiled and stuffed his mouth with what was left of his donut. "I bet you're a Hufflepuff."

Tom didn't have time to say anything when Bill already informed that he had to leave for work. They quickly agreed to meet the next day after Bill's morning shift so they could actually work on their history project. After that they both left the cafe.

While walking back to school, hands in his pockets and kicking small rocks on the road, Tom wondered why hadn't he ever considered getting a job. It didn't take him much time to remember why: he was a lazy shit who thought he didn't need any extra money as long as he could afford his beer and noodles. His parents gave him as much money as he needed, but he didn't like asking for it, so he simply made himself survive with the little money he got as a student allowance. Sometimes his mom would give him a twenty or something at the end of the month without asking, and Tom was always happy to receive it, but it still made him a bit uncomfortable to use his parents' money.

The next morning was more than weird. Tom didn't have a killer hangover even though it was Saturday, he woke up before midday and he was actually looking forward to studying with Bill. He took a long shower and ate breakfast for the first time in months. He had time to make coffee and clean his room a little before Bill showed up to his room's door with a box of cupcakes.

They started their day by making a few notes and going through some websites, but they got bored pretty quickly, so they decided to take a break. And their break lasted for the rest of the day, but Tom still learned so much. He learned he was actually a slytherin, what Bill didn't want to believe in even after Tom had answered the questions three times.

"You can't be a slytherin," he cried with a defeated expression as Tom, once again, got sorted in slytherin.

They downloaded the first Harry Potter movie and stuffed themselves with the cupcakes Bill had brought them while watching, and after that Tom downloaded the next movie while Bill went to make them some noodles. After they had binge watched the first three movies, it was getting late and Bill had to go to sleep 'cause he had an early shift the next morning, just like he always had in the weekends.

The next couple of days went by like the first. They met right after school or after Bill came from work, picked up cupcakes or pizza, or both, and spent the night in Tom's room, eating and binge watching movies after "working on their project" for a half an hour or so.

"We really need to get something done with this," Bill sighed as they once again sat down in front of Tom's computer to work on the history project. "The deadline's in five days and we've got nothing!"

"Hey! We have something," Tom reminded the raven haired teen and dug out his notes. "I mean, we have like.. uh.."

"We have a page, Tom! We have a page of notes and some stupid stick figures you drew!" Bill took the notebook from his hands and threw it across the room. "We have nothing, Tom, and I wasn't kidding when I said I won't take a shitty grade from this."

"So, what now?" It was a stupid question. Of course Tom knew what now. Now they needed to work their asses off and study like there was no tomorrow, so Bill could get his A.

"Now we'll work on this on our own," Bill told him coldly. "And you will do your part in this, or I'll strangle you with those stupid cornrows of yours."

After that Bill collected his stuff and left the room, leaving Tom with a hot pizza on his lap, thinking about how he was gonna get killed by the raven haired beauty.

Boy. The raven haired boy. Bill was a boy, not a beauty.


End file.
